PREREQUISITES
English for IR, level I, or be placed directly in level II by having demonstrated consolidated level of B2.2 in the Common European Framework on the entrance exam.
PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE
This program assumes that beginning
students have reached a level which is superior to Cambridge First Certificate
and are therefore familiar with advanced English grammar structures and
vocabulary. Student will have to take an entrance exam (Oxford Placement Test)
and they will need to reach a score corresponding to B2 in order for them to
be admitted into the program.
SUBJECTS TO BE TAKEN SIMULTANEOUSLY
None
SUBJECT DESCRIPTION
Professors of this course: Catherine Otey and Klaus Zilles
English for International Relations
has been designed according to the needs perceived by both language teachers
and experts in International Relations. The program follows the principles
advanced by the Section of Modern Languages of the Council of Europe. The three
levels have been created from a communicative perspective and are taught by
means of a balanced mixture of task-based, text-based, and CLIL (content and
language integrated learning) approaches. In each course students have to carry
out a series of tasks related to different topics within the three main areas
of International Relations: international politics, world economy, and
communication. In those tasks, students will use English, both receptively and
productively, to accomplish the objectives set for each task. As far as
materials are concerned, reading and listening exercises have been designed
with authentic material and, therefore, the level of difficulty is similar for
all levels, although the language expectations are different.
English for International Relations is closely
linked to the International Relations Seminar in that they both consist of
small groups of students.
This
course belongs to Module 1: Linguistic
expression, and is part of the block of basic credits that the School has
established in accordance with state legislation. The 3 levels constitute a block which has 12
ECTS credits assigned.
COMPETENCES
These competences are the academic objectives of English for International Relations II and, therefore, establish
the evaluation requirements of the course (see Criteria for Evaluation of Results).
1. Knowledge and correct oral English.
1.1 To develop fluency,
complexity, clarity, and coherence in oral expression related to International
Relations issues.
1.2. To make students competent
speakers of English in professional, academic, and informal situations, and
improve their oral production and interaction skills.
1.3 To formulate questions,
develop arguments, support with evidence and data, and present issues and
problems related to International Relations.
2. Basic ability to understand communicative
production, both written and audiovisual, related to International Relations.
2.1 To provide students with
basic strategies to deal with academic and specialized reading.
2.2 To jointly explore issues,
gather and deploy evidence and data (through sources such as statistics,
graphs, tables, etc.) to find, retrieve, select, and exchange new information.
2.3 To provide the opportunities
for learners to listen to and understand complex issues through video and
audio.
3. Ability to write complex texts
based on International Relations topics and issues.
3.1 To plan, document, design,
and present independently conceived (original) pieces of writing in
International Relations.
3.2 To introduce students to the
vocabulary, idioms, discourse markers, and structures related to International
Relations.
RESULTS OF STUDY:
To be able to speak English with a high degree of excellence (C1.2 - C2.1)
To be able to understand both oral and written English, in communication situations linked to the professional practice of International Relations.
CONTENTS
1. Conflict Resolution
1.1 Writing a conflict resolution scenario
1.2 Role playing a conflict resolution scenario
2. Reading text 1: History of Conflict Resolution
3. Writing workshop: Summarizing an interview
3.1 Basic rules of punctuation
3.2 Outlining
3.3 Paraphrasing
4. The Commonwealth Project
METHODOLOGY
Students must carry out a
series of tasks related to International Relations which have a specific goal,
a particular procedure, and from which an outcome is expected. With some ad hoc variations, each task begins with
a pre-task phase in which ideas are activated and input is provided (a, b, d,
e, f, i). During the task-cycle, students must work in pairs or small groups in
class or outside class (f, g, i). Feedback (in the form of explicit
corrections, recasts, elicitations, and other techniques) is provided as
students work in small groups. This is followed by a planning stage, which
students use to prepare and practice their report, and a report phase, which
requires a public oral presentation of the students’ work (h). Each task
concludes with a language focus stage in which specific structures and
vocabulary are targeted (b, c, i). Part of this phase can be carried out by
students outside the class. Mid-term and final exams are administered to
measure students’ acquisition of new vocabulary and grammar learned in the task
cycle (j, k).
This methodology, therefore,
includes activities falling into the following categories:
a. Classroom
instruction
b. Individual
exercises in class
c. Individual
exercises outside of class
d. Reading of texts
e. Viewing of
videos
f. Group
discussions in class
g. Group work
outside of class
h. Presentations in
class
i. Participation
and interaction in class
j. Preparation of
exams
k.
Taking of exams
EVALUATION
A.
Written exams
B.
Oral exams
C.
Evaluation of homework and
essays
D.
Evaluation of
presentations in class
E.
Evaluation of class
participation and attitude
Final exam 50%: Oral assessment 25%
Language
focus exam 25%
Reading comprehension 25%
Listening
comprehension 25%
Class work 50%: Class oral presentations
Written
work, including homework and in-class tests
Listening
exercises
Participation
in class
Participation in 85% of regular
class sessions is a prerequisite for taking the final exam. Those students who fail to meet this
criterion have not earned the right to take the end-of-term final exam.
Students must pass at least three of the four
parts of the final exam in order to pass the course.
Those students who fail the
course in the first term, or who have not earned the right to take the
end-of-term exam, must repeat the same
level in the second term.
At the end of second term, students who take the exam but fail the course have the right to take the July re-sit exam. The
final grade for students taking this exam will take into account: the class
grade obtained for continuous evaluation (50%) and the grade on the re-sit exam
(50%).
Students who did not earn the right to take the exam at the end of
second term cannot take the re-sit exam
and must re-register for the same level in the first term of the following
academic year.
CRITERIA OF EVALUATION OF RESULTS
At the end of English
for International Relations II students should have achieved the following objectives.
Objective 1: Oral competence in English (B, D).
·
Students should be able to
express themselves fluently, with complex language, and with only occasional
communication breakdowns. Students must show that they are aware of and can
repair pronunciation errors and that they can quickly find an alternative when
they do not know a specific word.
·
Students should show
command of complex descriptive and narrative verb tenses, and display few
errors. Sentence structure is expected to be complex with only occasional
sentence structure errors. In general, students are expected to self-correct
immediately after errors in their speech.
·
Students must be able to
use complex subordination and other complex ways to connect sentences. They
must be able to display lexical alternatives in both task-related and
task-unrelated speech, and show mastery of standard collocations and idioms.
·
Students should show their
ability to interact and display strategies to overcome occasional communication
breakdowns during interaction, as well as show command of typical
conversational patterns and short answers.
·
Students should show
mastery of task-related, specialized International Relations vocabulary.
·
Students should show
familiarity with the complex grammatical structures associated with each task.
·
Students must be able to
express complex opinions about the media-related topics presented in class,
display argumentation skills, and critical thinking.
Objective 2: Ability to
understand communicative production, both written and audiovisual, related to
International Relations (A, C, E).
·
Students should be able to
abstract complex information from texts which specialize in International
Relations.
·
Students must be able to
interpret the main ideas in a text and guess complex meanings from context.
·
Students should be able to
understand and interpret the information in a news broadcast or documentary.
·
Students should be able to
understand high- and medium-frequency words related to International Relations,
and show they can guess the meaning of low-frequency words from contextual
clues.
Objective 3: Ability to
write complex texts based on International Relations topics (A, B, C, D, E).
·
Students must show their
ability to communicate through writing in all kinds of professional and
academic situations. (e.g. formal essay writing, written reports, formal and
informal e-mail writing, among others)
·
Students must be able to
demonstrate sophisticated organizational skills when writing, display use of
complex connectors, complex structures, formulaic language, as well as idioms
and collocations.
BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK:
Class workbook: Barkham,
S.; Gilabert, R.; Otey, C. & Zilles, K. English
for International Relations. Level 2. Barcelona, 2015.
RECOMMENDED MATERIALS:
Colonna, M.R. & Gilbert, J.E. 2006. Reason to Write: Strategies
for Success in Academic Writing, Advanced. New York: OUP
Mann,
Malcolm & Taylore-Knowles,
Steve. 2008. Destination Grammar C1 & C2: Student's Book with Key. London: Macmillan Education Ltd.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MATTER COMPLEMENTARY
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Cambridge
Dictionary Online
Visuwords web
site for word networks
Theorytalks.org
web site
Frontline documentaries by
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service)
60 Minutes (CBS)
BBC World Service
Al-Jazeera
Russia Today
Der Spiegel (English
version)
The Guardian
The New York Times
National Public Radio
(NPR)
Movies with themes related
to International Relations
Web sites related to International
Relations, linguistic aspects, vocabulary, glossaries, etc.